World

Poland's new president calls for NATO troops on eastern flank in 1st trip abroad to Estonia

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, right, and Polish president Andrzej Duda pose for a photo during their meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. Duda makes his first foreign visit to Estonia on Sunday. (AP Photo/ Liis Treimann) (The Associated Press)

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, right, and Polish president Andrzej Duda prepares to pose for a photo during their meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. Duda makes his first foreign visit to Estonia on Sunday. (AP Photo/ Liis Treimann) (The Associated Press)

Polish president Andrzej Duda gestures as he speaks during his and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves news conference after their meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. Duda made his first foreign visit to Estonia on Sunday, a trip that sent a strong message of solidarity with other nations in the region that are nervous about a resurgent Russia. (AP Photo/Liis Treimann) (The Associated Press)

Poland's new president has called for NATO to move troops to its eastern flank during his first trip abroad, to Estonia, bringing a message of solidarity to a region nervous about Russian ambitions.

Andrzej Duda's message was underlined not only by his words, but also by the fact that Duda timed his visit to Estonia to fall on European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, which marks the anniversary of the secret 1939 Soviet-Nazi pact that divided much of Eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

At a news conference alongside Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Duda spoke of the "resurgent imperial tendencies" in the region and said that since the world is changing, NATO should as well.